Conventionally, in lightweight and small vehicles such as a golf cart, an inexpensive, lightweight and small power unit is desirably mounted. One example of such a power unit includes an engine and a transaxle in which a reduction gear, a differential gear, and an axle are integral with each other, both the engine and transaxle being unitarily mounted to a frame member. For example, in a golf cart disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,827, a transaxle with an axle oriented rightward and leftward and an engine disposed forward of the transaxle are mounted to a vehicle body in such a manner that they are supported by a frame of pipe-shaped and other frame members. In a vehicle disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,495, an engine is held from below by a plate-shaped support member bent in an L-shape in a side view, and a transaxle disposed behind the engine is fastened to a rear panel section of the support member by bolts.
In the golf cart disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,827, since it is difficult to handle one pipe frame in a bent state, it becomes necessary to weld a plurality of pipe frames to each other, causing poor productivity and increasing the number of components. Furthermore, a number of gaps formed in the pipe frames make it difficult to protect the engine and the transaxle.
In the vehicle disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,495, the plate-shaped support member is located only below the engine, and thus the transaxle is exposed from below. Therefore, obstacles and others from below are likely to contact a lower surface of the transaxle during traveling of the vehicle, degrading durability of the transaxle.